Questions for the DASM were updated on : Dec 01 ,2025
In Team Estimation
A
Explanation:
In Team Estimation, also known as relative estimation or silent grouping, the team first estimates the
relative sizes of all user stories by comparing them against each other. The stories are arranged in
order of size (smallest to largest) without initially assigning specific numbers. After ordering,
numerical values (such as story points) are then assigned to each story based on their relative size.
This method leverages group consensus and comparative analysis to provide more accurate
estimates.
B . Ranking teams in order of importance is not part of the Team Estimation process.
C . Defining "Definition of Done" criteria is a separate exercise, not related to estimating story size.
D . Estimating necessary roles is not a part of Team Estimation.
What is the role of the product owner?
C
Explanation:
The role of the Product Owner in Agile and Disciplined Agile frameworks is to ensure the team is
building the right product that aligns with stakeholder needs and provides maximum value to the
customer. The Product Owner achieves this by managing and prioritizing the product backlog,
defining user stories, clarifying requirements, and making decisions on behalf of the stakeholders.
A . Coordinate the product is not a primary function of the Product Owner.
B . Inspect the product may be a part of their responsibilities, but the focus is on guiding the
product's development.
D . Organize the product team is more aligned with the Scrum Master's role.
How does a value stream map help the learn to minimize waste?
A
Explanation:
A value stream map is a Lean tool that helps teams visualize the flow of work and identify waste
throughout the process of delivering a product or service. The primary purpose of a value stream
map is to help the team identify problem areas or bottlenecks in the path to realizing value. By
understanding where delays, excess inventory, or unnecessary steps occur, teams can target these
areas for improvement, thereby minimizing waste and optimizing the flow of value to customers.
B . Focusing on the construction phase is not specific to minimizing waste across the entire value
stream.
C . Reducing delays in the workflow process is an outcome of identifying problem areas but not the
direct function of value stream mapping.
D . Applying the five Whys root cause method is a separate Lean technique that can complement
value stream mapping but is not its main purpose.
A company is introducing new features to a large, existing product. Which technique should the
product team employ?
A
Explanation:
When introducing new features to a large, existing product, the product team should employ the
Minimum Business Increment (MBI) technique. An MBI is the smallest piece of functionality that can
be delivered that provides value to the business. It allows teams to deliver business value quickly
while minimizing risk and ensuring that only essential, incremental changes are introduced. This
approach is particularly useful for managing the complexity of large, established products and
ensuring that new features are aligned with business goals.
Reference:
PMI Disciplined Agile (DA) Toolkit, which discusses the use of MBIs to introduce changes
incrementally and deliver business value.
PMI, "Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working
(WoW)," which explains the benefits of using MBIs in agile product development.
What is the first step in choosing your team's way of working?
E
Explanation:
The first step in choosing a team’s way of working (WoW) in Disciplined Agile is to analyze the
context. This involves understanding the specific needs, constraints, and circumstances of the team
and its environment. By analyzing the context, the team can make informed decisions about which
practices, tools, and frameworks are most appropriate for their situation. This ensures that the
chosen WoW is tailored to fit the team’s unique challenges and goals.
Reference:
PMI Disciplined Agile (DA) Toolkit, which outlines the steps for choosing a team's WoW, starting with
analyzing the context to make context-sensitive choices.
PMI, "Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working
(WoW)," which emphasizes the importance of context in selecting an appropriate approach.
Which of these tools or techniques should be used to sequence work to deliver value quickly?
A
Explanation:
In Disciplined Agile (DA), Minimum Business Increment (MBI) (A) is a key tool used to sequence work
in order to deliver value quickly. An MBI is the smallest piece of functionality that can deliver
recognizable value to the business and its stakeholders. By focusing on delivering MBIs, teams can
prioritize and sequence their work to release incremental value to customers in a timely manner,
reducing time-to-market and allowing for early feedback.
Here’s a breakdown of why MBI is the correct answer:
MBI (A) is specifically designed to deliver real business value with the minimum amount of effort,
ensuring that development work is focused on the most impactful features first. It’s not just about
delivering a working product, but rather delivering the smallest set of functionalities that provide
business value, which can be immediately utilized by the organization or customers.
The other options have important roles in Agile but are not directly related to sequencing work to
deliver value quickly:
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) (B): While MVP is crucial for early market testing, it is a broader
concept compared to MBI. MVP aims to test the product’s viability, but MBI is more focused on
delivering incremental business value.
Planning Poker (C): A tool for estimating work efforts in Agile but not used for sequencing work.
Work in Process (WIP) Limits (D): This technique is related to managing workflow, typically in
Kanban, by limiting the number of tasks in progress to avoid overloading the team. While it improves
flow, it does not directly prioritize or sequence work based on business value.
Therefore, MBI (A) is the most effective technique for sequencing work to deliver value quickly in the
DA framework.
What are the attributes of a leader? (Choose three)
C, D, E
Explanation:
The key attributes of a leader in an agile context include the ability to focus on goals, inspire trust,
and take risks. Agile leaders guide their teams by keeping a clear vision of the goals, building trust
through transparency and integrity, and being willing to take calculated risks to achieve desired
outcomes. They do not simply "go with the flow" or assign tasks in a top-down manner; instead, they
empower their teams, foster a culture of trust, and support innovation by encouraging risk-taking
within safe-to-fail boundaries.
Reference:
PMI Disciplined Agile (DA) Toolkit, which describes the characteristics of effective leaders, including
goal focus, trust-building, and risk-taking.
PMI Agile Practice Guide, which provides insights into leadership attributes that promote agile
success.
What are the benefits to having a long-live (stable) team?
A C
Explanation:
A long-lived (or stable) team is a group of individuals who work together over an extended period,
typically across multiple projects or product increments. In the context of PMI's Disciplined Agile (DA)
framework, having a long-lived team is beneficial for several reasons:
Trustworthy (A): As team members work together over time, they build a strong sense of trust. Trust
within a team is foundational for effective collaboration, decision-making, and conflict resolution.
Team members learn to rely on each other's skills and knowledge, leading to more effective and
efficient work processes. Disciplined Agile emphasizes creating environments where trust can be
fostered, which is more easily achieved in stable, long-lived teams.
Highly Collaborative (C): Long-lived teams develop a rhythm of working together, which leads to high
levels of collaboration. As team members become more familiar with each other's working styles,
strengths, and weaknesses, they can communicate more effectively, align on goals more quickly, and
coordinate their efforts more efficiently. This heightened collaboration accelerates delivery, improves
quality, and fosters continuous improvement—key principles in the Disciplined Agile toolkit.
Incorrect Options:
B . Projectized: While the concept of a "projectized" organization focuses on structuring around
projects, this does not inherently relate to the benefits of having a long-lived team. In contrast,
Disciplined Agile promotes stable teams over project-centric teams to maximize the value delivery
and learning curve.
D . Specifically resourced: This option refers to the allocation of specific resources for projects or
tasks, which does not directly align with the idea of having a stable, long-term team.
E . Ability to multi-task: Multi-tasking is generally not considered a benefit within agile frameworks,
including Disciplined Agile. Multi-tasking can lead to inefficiency and reduced focus, which goes
against the principles of optimizing flow and delivering value quickly.
Thus, the most appropriate answers that align with the principles of Disciplined Agile are A.
Trustworthy and C. Highly collaborative
When should an iteration backlog be created?
D
Explanation:
An iteration backlog (or sprint backlog) is created at the beginning of each sprint during the iteration
planning meeting. This backlog consists of the tasks and user stories that the team commits to
completing during the iteration. The process involves selecting the highest-priority items from the
product backlog and breaking them down into smaller tasks that can be completed within the sprint
timeframe.
A . Planning the Kanban board does not typically use an iteration backlog as Kanban is flow-based,
not iteration-based.
B . At the beginning of each project is incorrect because the backlog is created for each sprint, not
the entire project.
C . When defining the MBI (Minimum Business Increment) is related to identifying the smallest unit
of value delivery but is not when an iteration backlog is created.
During Which iterative ceremony should someone obtain feedback?
A
Explanation:
During an iteration demo (also known as an iteration review), the team presents the work completed
during the iteration to stakeholders and obtains feedback. This feedback is crucial for ensuring that
the team is delivering the desired value and making adjustments as needed for future iterations. The
demo provides an opportunity for the product owner and other stakeholders to inspect the product
increment and provide input that can be used to refine the backlog and guide the team’s efforts.
B . Retrospective is focused on team improvement rather than obtaining product feedback.
C . Iteration planning is for planning the work to be done, not gathering feedback.
D . Daily stand-up/coordination meeting is used for team synchronization and does not involve
external feedback.
What are the three phases of DAD's delivery life cycle?
D
Explanation:
The three phases of Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)'s delivery life cycle are:
Inception: This phase focuses on getting the project off the ground. It includes identifying
stakeholders, understanding the vision, defining the initial scope, and planning for the necessary
resources and timeline.
Construction: This phase involves building the solution incrementally and iteratively, with continuous
delivery of working software and regular stakeholder feedback.
Transition: This phase prepares the solution for release into production or the marketplace. It
includes final validation, user training, deployment planning, and release management.
Other options are incorrect:
A . Commencement, Creation, Evolution are not standard DAD phases.
B . Initiation, Foundation, Conversion do not match DAD terminology.
C . Introduction, Substance, Alteration are not relevant to DAD.
Therefore, the correct answer is D. Inception, Construction, Transitions.
A scrum master needs to set up a team for a long-term project that has the potential for significant
budgeting and tracking overhead.
What type of team should the scrum master set up?
A
Explanation:
A long-standing team is best suited for a long-term project with the potential for significant
budgeting and tracking overhead. In Disciplined Agile (DA), a long-standing team is a stable, cross-
functional team that remains intact over time and works on various projects or continuous delivery
of value. This type of team reduces overhead associated with forming and disbanding teams and
allows for more consistent tracking, budgeting, and management of resources. Additionally, long-
standing teams develop stronger team dynamics and improve performance over time due to their
stability.
B . A project team is typically temporary and disbanded once the project ends.
C . A cross-functional team is a characteristic of many Agile teams but does not specifically address
the need for long-term stability.
D . A shared services team supports other teams by providing specialized skills but is not focused on
long-term projects with budgeting needs.
Which of the following statements accurately describes a complex adaptive system?
D
Explanation:
A complex adaptive system is characterized by the idea that understanding the individual
components does not necessarily provide a clear understanding of the system's overall behavior.
These systems are composed of interacting agents that adapt and learn from their experiences,
leading to emergent behavior that cannot be easily predicted from the properties of the individual
components. This concept is critical in Agile and Disciplined Agile practices, where teams and
organizations are viewed as complex adaptive systems that evolve and adapt over time in response
to their environment.
Reference:
PMI Disciplined Agile (DA) Toolkit, which discusses the concept of complex adaptive systems in the
context of agile teams and organizational dynamics.
PMI Agile Practice Guide, which explains how Agile frameworks view teams and organizations as
complex adaptive systems to embrace change and continuous improvement.
Which characteristic describes a good user story according to the f.N.V.E.S.T. mnemonic?
D
Explanation:
According to the INVEST mnemonic, a good user story should be Valuable. This means that the user
story must deliver value to the customer or stakeholder. Each user story should have a clear purpose,
ensuring that the effort invested in its development contributes to the overall product value. Other
criteria of the INVEST mnemonic include Independent, Negotiable, Estimable, Small, and Testable,
but "Valuable" is key to justifying the user story's inclusion in the product backlog.
Reference:
PMI Disciplined Agile (DA) Toolkit, which outlines the INVEST criteria for user stories and emphasizes
the need for stories to deliver value.
PMI Agile Practice Guide, which describes the characteristics of well-formed user stories using the
INVEST mnemonic.
Who defines the amount of work to be completed during an iteration?
D
Explanation:
In Disciplined Agile, the team members are responsible for defining the amount of work to be
completed during an iteration based on their understanding of the team's current capacity. This is
aligned with Agile principles that promote self-organizing teams and emphasize the importance of
team members making commitments based on their realistic assessment of what they can achieve.
This collaborative decision-making process helps to ensure that the team is neither over-committing
nor under-utilizing its capacity, leading to sustainable delivery and higher quality outcomes.
Reference:
PMI Agile Practice Guide, which supports the principle of team autonomy in deciding how much
work they can complete in an iteration.
PMI Disciplined Agile (DA) Toolkit, which promotes self-organization and team-based decision-
making regarding workload capacity.